Chapter 1210 Prelude to War part 2

"Are you serious?" Kisuke immediately asked.

Ouetsu turned at him but only kept his silence.

"...But how?"

"I don't know. I suddenly felt his eyes landing on me when I reinforced the names of those blades. Well, I should have expected something like that from him..." In the middle of talking, Ouetsu remembered something and entered the workshop and came out of it a few seconds later. In his hand is a tanto knife blade with a wooden hilt and sheath exuding a familiar aura, but much more repressed.

'Tiamat? I thought she's just roaming somewhere.' Kisuke thought when he saw the blade.

As he walked towards Kisuke, Ouetsu pulled out the short and glistening blade, "You should make a proper connection with her this time." With a flick of his arm that's almost impossible to track, Ouetsu stabbed Kisuke in the heart with it.

Kisuke was surprised but didn't defend. The blade sank into his chest, bypassing all the defenses he had but no blood spilled from it. A split second later, the knife disappeared as if it didn't exist in the first place and no wound nor damage to Kisuke's clothes was left behind.

Kisuke closed his eyes and entered his inner world where Tiamat was. The space that Tiamat took looked like an empty void without any sense of direction but strangely enough, Kisuke could clearly see himself and Tiamat despite the absence of light, "Why?"

"There's no point in me hiding your existence anymore. You're found out after that smith broke his pact. If you want to succeed, I think it's best for you not to take your time anymore."

Kisuke opened his eyes back up, "Thanks for this. This is a lot better than the 'Asauchi' that I made to trap her in."

"Of course. I used that necklace of hers as the base for it so her containment is a lot more stable. I'm actually more surprised that it didn't break when you first sealed her." Ouetsu returned to his workshop and before he shut the door to his workshop, he said, "By the way, now that I've broken the pact of the Royal Guards, the chains that are limiting their abilities are now gone too. And if they were to reach Hell, they would be able to release their Bankai without worrying about destroying the boundaries between worlds due to their enormous powers."

Kisuke became silent for a moment before turning to Serafall, Claire, Tanis, Kunou, Ophis, and Lilith who gathered in one corner, "I'm sorry but I'd have to ask you to send a message to everyone. Tell them that they only have 2 days. Whether they are prepared or not, they are going to attack the [Chained]."

"Why 2 days?" asked Serafall while sensing the urgency within his voice, "It looks like you're in a hurry so shouldn't we get them back now?"

"I have to prepare a few things and transfer Nimaiya-san to his new body."

"Alright... I'll go get the old man. I'll leave the rest to you, girls."

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While making his way to a certain spot within Hell, Tiamat's voice suddenly resounded inside Kisuke's head, [Why are you hellbent on eliminating them?]

"I've been stalking the place they're staying in. I couldn't care less who they were and I actually wanted to know what their connection was to Hell itself. Sadly, aside from a few clues, I couldn't come up with a reasonable expectation."

[And just for that, you're going to eliminate them?]

"They are unnecessary risks. Besides, don't you find it strange? They are immortal here in Hell but once they leave the door, they are just like any normal individuals that can be killed." Kisuke stopped his Flash Step and looked around before walking in another direction, "And what about the [Unchained]? While I was able to give them new bodies that would allow them freedom, why couldn't they leave in the first place? I know there are restrictions in place but I never figured out the reason for their existence in the first place."

[Don't you already have a guess?]

"True. I concluded that they were 'food' to slow down the rate of maggots eating through this dead body. But what's the role of the [Chained] here if they are not the food? And what's up with their obsession with consuming others to make themselves grow?"

[Then isn't eliminating them more dangerous than leaving them alone?]

"I've thought about that too and just intended to kill a few of them to see what's going to happen. However, as you've said, I don't have much time anymore. As long as the other side is ready, I'm going to force through my plan. It's a shame but it looks like I have no choice but to involve Ophis and Lilith in this."

[The other side?]

"Someone who'll be able to do anything he wants regardless of the situation." Kisuke finally stopped moving and a Magic Circle for communications suddenly appeared in front of him, "And he's also going to be the major contributor to soul migration."

From the Magic Circle, another familiar voice came out, [Finally! I thought I was going to rot here, you bastard!]

Kisuke chuckled, "Sorry about that, Benihime. I'll make it short. Go reveal your identity to him."

[We're finally breaking everything?]

"There's a chance that our enemies are already aware of me and about to close in to me so we don't really have a choice. I'm leaving it to you."

[Well, at least this ninja cosplay is finally going to end.]

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A full day later, everyone who wanted to subdue their Zanpakuto returned, albeit, a bit haggard, "Say, what's the rush?" Furoufushi asked with a complaining voice, "I almost didn't make it."

"We're moving up the schedule for quite a bit so please focus on returning to your peak states," Kisuke answered her using his tablet containing various information.

"By the way, where's the old man?" Juushirou asked while looking around, "It's strange how he's the last one. I thought he'd be the first one to return."

Thankfully, no one needed to answer that question as they all felt the presence of two people approaching.

The sharpest of them, Kisuke and Batsu'unsai, however, felt something amiss and hurriedly turned their heads.

Not long after, Yamamoto and Serafall came into their view. Choujirou was about to greet the former but froze on the spot when he saw the state they were in.

Yamamoto has a giant gaping hole in the middle of his stomach covered with clear ice while Serafall is missing her entire right arm with the stump on her shoulder also frozen.

Without anyone's instruction, Tanis immediately ran towards them and started healing them.

"Ki-tan! Listen to this! This old man is seriously strong! His flames are actually on par with Sirzech-chan's Power of Destruction in terms of destructive ability!" Serafall, not minding her missing arm, immediately reported with a big smile on her face.

Yamamoto, on the other hand, stroked his now cut-in-half white beard, "Hooh? My flames are actually on par with someone? I'd like to meet them someday. In any case, you're the ridiculous one here, young lady. You actually froze everything, including my flames if I didn't compress them. On top of that, I'm also just lucky that I was able to take out your arm since I couldn't inflict damage on you most of the time."

"Couldn't inflict damage? Yama-chan, the soul-slaying capability of those Zanpakuto is seriously frightening. I'm supposedly impervious to most things once I'm in my Super Devil state, but despite my best efforts, you're still cutting through my soul, forcing me out of it."

Dumbfounded, Kisuke interrupted them while approaching to assist Tanis, "No. You two went too far."